Man Trapped 16 Days Found

U.S.& Latin America - U.S. News to Note

December 28, 2000

PORTLAND, Ore. -- An Air Force man who allegedly went AWOL from a base in South Dakota got trapped in a snowdrift for 16 days, surviving on M&Ms and orange juice and scrawling a farewell note to his parents before snowmobilers came upon him in his car. Thomas Wade Truett, 29, of Jacksonville was hospitalized with hypothermia and will be turned over to Air Force officials for prosecution on desertion charges. The snowmobilers who found Truett said he wore no coat or sweater, only a T-shirt. He lost 20 pounds.